


bloom

by bunyoul



Category: A.C.E (Beat Interactive Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Famous, Flowers, a tiny bit of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-24
Updated: 2018-03-24
Packaged: 2019-04-07 15:22:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14083851
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bunyoul/pseuds/bunyoul
Summary: Sehyoon is allergic to pollen and Byeongkwan likes to communicate through flowers





	bloom

**Author's Note:**

> i have an analytical chemistry competition coming up in 2 days and im sitting here writing this instead of preparing  
> just something short and sweet that i wrote while listening to [bloom](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YfqLOWorSY) by the paper kites  
> ((for plot purposes please pretend that byeongkwan is only 1 year younger than sehyoon i needed them to only be 1 school year apart))

_ Bloom _

  
  


There’s a tree outside of Sehyoon’s window that Byeongkwan likes to climb, shuffling up the trunk and along the branches to knock on Sehyoon’s window, something like a movie cliche. He usually shows up in the hours between late night and early morning, when the streets are quiet and it feels like everyone else in the world is sleeping.

 

Sehyoon learns to keep his window unlocked, waiting up for the sound of Byeongkwan tapping on the glass and peering in through the leaves and the branches. He’s often barefoot as he perches on the branch closest to the windowsill, feet hanging in the air above the garden outside. He never seems to worry about falling. 

 

They talk quietly, the air around them still- as if the world is holding its breath. 

 

Sometimes Sehyoon joins him in the branches, climbing out the window and resting his head against the wall of the house as the moon and streetlamps illuminate the edges of the leaves. It feels like summer will continue forever, years upon years of dry air and nights that are warm enough to leave the house without a jacket.

 

“This is a Maple tree, you know? They represent promises.” Byeongkwan picks one of the leaves and balances it on Sehyoon’s head, a proud smile forming on his face when it doesn’t slip off again.

 

They make their promises amongst the branches of the maple tree, as if it will help them stay true, linking fingers under the starlight and the blinking of aeroplanes flying by, as the whole world sleeps on around them. Their voices become lost in the wind and the leaves above their heads.

 

“As long as it’s summer, I’ll be here with you.” 

 

-

 

Byeongkwan brings Sehyoon a yellow rose the night before the next school year begins.

 

It’s late summer, the sky stained rose-gold by the sunset. Bees fly around the garden as Sehyoon sits on the grass and Byeongkwan leaps over the fence, landing then tumbling heavily onto the lawn. 

 

“Yellow roses mean friendship and new beginnings.” Byeongkwan smiles as he hands the flower over, its warm yellow petals slightly crooked from where Byeongwkan had ran with it in his hand.

 

Sehyoon traces the rose petals with his fingers and sneezes, nearly dropping it onto the lawn.

 

They go walking through the streets, watching the last of the sun setting over the rooftops and breathing in dust and pollen from gardens they pass by. Sehyoon still holds onto the flower, the edges of its thorns pressing against the palm of his hand. 

 

The sun dips fully below the horizon and the night is too cold to be out any longer. The rose ends up in a vase on Sehyoon’s desk, a petal falling off and landing amongst pens and notebooks as he places it there. The streetlamps flicker on, and Byeongkwan doesn’t come to his window that night.

 

-

 

The day before Sehyoon’s final exams- the spring bleeding slowly into summer once more- Byeongkwan knocks on Sehyoon’s door rather than his window.

 

He’s standing on the doorstep with a bunch of flowers, holding onto them tightly with a preoccupied smile on his face as a butterfly passes in front of his eyes. His focus snaps back to the door when Sehyoon waves a hand in front of his face.

 

“Yellow Amaryllis,” Byeongkwan grins and pushes the bouquet towards Sehyoon. “They represent good luck.” 

 

They both end up in Sehyoon’s room, eating ice cream as clouds roll by outside and Sehyoon reads through flashcards and notes, calling out facts for Byeongkwan to test him on. The flowers sit in the vase on the desk, where the yellow rose once sat months ago, the window open and the leaves of the maple tree outside shifting against one another- static noise in the background.

 

Sehyoon covers up another sneeze and doesn’t have the heart to tell Byeongkwan that he’s allergic to pollen. 

 

-

 

It’s not quite a party that occurs the day before Sehyoon leaves for university- just a gathering of family, out in the garden under the maple tree as summer rolls on into autumn. Family- and Byeongkwan, hopping the fence in the corner of the garden instead of using the door like everyone else, startling anyone standing near his landing site. The lawn in that area of the garden is worn thin from the amount of time he’s used it to break his fall.

 

He’s carrying a branch of small white flowers and he walks directly over to Sehyoon, grabbing his wrist and pulling him over to the corner of the garden, closer to the shade of the maple tree.

 

“Pear blossom,” Byeongkwan traces the edge of one of the petals, rounded and delicate, then hands the branch to Sehyoon. “It’s for everlasting friendship.” Sehyoon looks down at the flowers, then at Byeongkwan, the sun dipping lower in the sky and starting to stain his hair in shades of gold and pink. It hits Sehyoon all at once- like a sudden kick in the chest that knocks the breath out of his lungs- just how much he’s going to miss everything. All the long evenings and restless summers, hanging out of windows and tree branches as the entire world sleeps around them. Sehyoon picks one of the flowers from the branch and tucks it into Byeongkwan’s hair, unthinking.

 

“Promise you won’t forget to come back?” Byeongkwan speaks his promise to the leaves of the maple tree, just as they always used to, and they link fingers once more- summer fading and dying around them along with the light of the sun.

 

-

 

Sehyoon returns home in winter, in the middle of a snowstorm, and is greeted by Byeongkwan. There’s a scarf wrapped around the lower half of his face and he has a bundle of small purple flowers, clustered together, held in his gloved hands.

 

“Wisteria,” He announces once they’re safely indoors, boots kicked off at the door and gathered by the heater, hot chocolate in hand and the curtains pulled closed to block out the sight of the snow outside. “It symbolises welcoming.” The flowers are starting to die, the petals curling up at the edges- indicating that Byeongkwan had bought them some time ago, before the snow had started. Sehyoon’s heart does an unwarranted flip in the space between his lungs and his sternum regardless. 

 

Sehyoon keeps the flowers by his bedside despite the fact that they make his eyes water.

 

-

 

In spring, the sun peeking through the clouds overhead and the leaves on the trees starting to return, Beyongkwan sits on the grass next to Sehyoon, revision notes spread out on the lawn and easter chocolates opened beside them. Birds land in the maple tree, locating sites for their nests in the spaces between the branches and the leaves. 

 

Byeongkwan makes daisy chains, plucking the flowers out of the lawn and threading them together, frowning every time he snaps the stems with clumsy hand movements, the chain growing longer as he reads over his notes and hums along to the song playing on the radio in the kitchen. 

 

“Daisies mean patience,” He announces when he’s finished the chain, joining the ends together and placing it on top of Sehyoon’s head like a crown; white petals against dark hair. It’s slightly too big, slipping down and threatening to fall into his eyes, and Sehyoon wills himself not to sneeze. “We’ll get to see each other more often soon- we just need to wait.”

 

Byeongkwan makes another daisy chain for himself, and they lie in the grass, wreathed in flowers as the clouds pass lazily overhead and the earth spins around them.

 

-

 

Byeongkwan throws an actual party before he leaves for university- his house filled with people, some Sehyoon has never met before, and others he only vaguely remembers. There’s music, loud but not unbearably so, and Sehyoon sticks close to the walls, feeling out of place in the familiar hallways of Byeongkwan’s house for the first time. 

 

Despite being in the middle of his own party, Byeongkwan still brings him a flower, one in each hand, small and yellow with eight thin petals. He passes one to Sehyoon, then tucks the other behind his own ear. 

 

“This one is celandine,” He speaks loudly, over the music and the conversations going on around them. “For joys to come.” He smiles, bright despite the low lighting, the yellow flower tucked amongst strands of freshly dyed grey hair. Sehyoon focuses on the wall behind Byeongkwan, feeling that he’ll be blinded if he looks too closely.

 

They end the night on the upstairs landing, the window open for them to lean out of, tracing hands through the summer air and watching the stars, pointing out constellations and aeroplanes as they fly overhead. The conversations downstairs are background noise, and nobody comes looking for them. The celandine flower is still tucked behind Byeongkwan’s ear-  _ joys to come _ \- and Sehyoon feels warm despite the cold breeze that sweeps in through the window, opened up to the world outside.

 

-

 

Sehyoon visits home next summer- Byeongkwan doesn’t.

 

He texts when Sehyoon is hanging his clothes back up in his wardrobe at home, the leaves of the maple tree filtering warm light into his room. ‘ _ Staying at uni with friends this summer, sorry _ .’ There’s no flowers, no warm smiles to greet him. 

 

The summers had always been theirs; the time to stay up unreasonably late, to run through the streets to get ice cream, to make promises under the trees and to try and count the stars in the sky, slow days and long nights that belonged to them- and them only. 

 

It suddenly feels like Byeongkwan doesn’t want to share summers with him anymore, and it hurts more than Sehyoon expects. 

 

The summer goes by too fast, afternoons spent indoors and mornings spent sleeping, sitting in the tree branches by himself late at night and still half expecting to turn and see Byeongkwan sitting next to him, explaining the meanings of flowers and constellations. 

 

It’s loneliness that drives Sehyoon to call Byeongkwan in the early hours of the morning, rambling onto a voicemail message about how empty the summer has felt, how alone he’s been, tiredness causing the words to spill out with nothing to stop them. He can’t tell if his eyes are watering because he’s crying, or from the pollen of the flowers he bought himself in place of the ones Byeongkwan would usually bring him. He falls asleep at his desk the moment the call is over and the phone is out of his hand.

 

Three days later, Byeongkwan shows up at Sehyoon’s door with a bunch of purple flowers, grappling the older into a hug the moment the bouquet is out of the way. 

 

“Hyacinths,” His hair is more blonde now, the grey having long since faded away. “I know it’s probably not good enough, but they’re for asking forgiveness.” Sehyoon hugs back, the summer feeling infinitely longer. 

 

-

 

Spring brings warm weather and rainstorms, dark clouds rolling across the skies as Byeongkwan runs up to Sehyoon, umbrella in hand to shield himself- and the red flower he carries- from the rain. Raindrops slide off the edge of Sehyoon’s hood and cling to his eyelashes as he stands near the maple tree, the rain hitting the leaves and then dropping to the ground. 

 

“Under here.” Byeongkwan beckons for Sehyoon to join him under the umbrella, holding it a little higher. Light filters through its thin material, casting shades of blue on everything under it, playing along the edges of the flower petals as Byeongkwan hands it to Sehyoon.

 

It’s red, with many petals blossoming out from the centre, all of them slightly damp from the raindrops.

 

“What does this one mean?” Sehyoon asks, expectant, surprised when Byeongkwan shakes his head.

 

“I can’t tell you this one.” He smiles, then starts walking, stretching up to keep the umbrella above them both as they walk down the street to the convenience store through the rain and the spring air.

 

“That’s a chrysanthemum,” Donghun tells Sehyoon when he shows him photos of the flower upon returning to his dorm after spring, the red petals having long since wilted. “The red ones mean ‘ _ I Love _ ’.” 

 

Sehyoon’s heart flips again, and this time he feels it’s warranted to do so.

 

-

 

In summer, when the weather is once again warm enough to wear no jacket at night and the moon hangs in a cloudless sky, Sehyoon is the one to knock on Byeongkwan’s window in the middle of the night.

 

There’s no tree to climb, so he throws pebbles from the gravel path running from the door to the gate, stones clattering against the window until Byeongkwan leans out, spots him, and joins him on the lawn, barefoot amongst the grass and starlight.

 

This time, it’s Sehyoon who pushes a small flower pot into Byeongkwan’s hand, wordless as the other looks down at the small white flowers sprouting from it in confusion. No aeroplanes pass overhead, and the world seems to hold its breath.

 

“They’re rainflowers,” Sehyoon forces his voice to work. “They’re supposed to mean ‘ _ I love you back’ _ .” There’s silence, and Beyongkwan stares at the flowers, small white petals with yellow centres, delicate looking. The maple tree watches over them from the opposite garden, its branches filled with promises. 

 

“I’m supposed to be the one giving you flowers.” Byeongkwan laughs, and it’s hard to tell whether he’s tearing up, or if it’s just the moon above reflecting back in his eyes. 

 

Their first kiss is under the starlight, standing in the middle of the lawn as the world sleeps on, oblivious. 

 

-

 

Byeongkwan has a bouquet of flowers tucked under his arm as he perches on the tree branch outside of Sehyoon’s window. He’s balanced precariously, bracing himself against the wall of the house as he tries to hang onto the array of blue-purple flowers without toppling out of the tree. He drops the flowers inside as soon as Sehyoon opens the window for him, gripping quickly onto the branch with both hands. The sun is just starting to set, dipping below the rooftops and turning the edges of the leaves gold.

 

“Hydrangeas.” Byeongkwan announces, out of breath from climbing up the side of the tree and pulling himself along the branches to the window.

 

“What do these ones mean?” Sehyoon has learned to ask, studying the abundance of petals now sitting on his windowsill. 

 

Byeongkwan shakes his head. “I didn’t check,” He smiles, knowing. “I just know these ones are good for people with pollen allergies.” 

**Author's Note:**

> researching the meanings of flowers for this was fun if not a little frustrating because often the flowers with the best meanings were either too unusual or too inconvenient  
> (example: one of the main plants representing 'reciprocated love' turned out to be an invasive plant species that causes damage to the environment)  
> i hope you enjoyed reading, feel free to contact me on tumblr @bunyoul if you have any questions / just want to talk!  
> as always all feedback is really appreciated !!  
> ヽ(‘ ∇‘ )ノ


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